Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I was given a pair of Supernova CSH 7 by Adidas yesterday. I was lucky as the pair left was my size and Mr. Krishnan confirmed that it fits me properly.

Me and Shazly spent a good hour with him, finding out what the shoe could offer. With 8 technical features (which i will list it down later) and promises that the shoe will live up to the "Runner's World Best Shoe" claim, i was more than eager to put it through the paces (or rahter my slow pace).

With 24 days to IM08, it would be suicidal to try out a new gear. The Triax is sort of worn in to a certain extend and i feel completely comfy wearing it for any run, including MLD run. So, when i put on the WRONG pair of socks this morning (at 4.30am, so, excuse the blur-ness) and having the right side fitting tighter than my left, i started to get worried if the shoe did fits me.

dumbass

It was also then i realised that the socks was bunched up at the end and hence, the thicker profile, which contributed to the tighter feeling. That was easily sorted and we started our run sharp at 5am.

The route to be taken was our usual +/-11km route through Bukti Damansara area, passing through Hartamas Highway before cutting back into Bukit Damansara. A total of 5 climbs with 2 long climbs.

Add that with a good flat along the highway, there was more than enough opportunities to test ride the shoe. For a start, the shoe felt lighter than the Triax (please bear with me, i only 1 proper running shoe prior to this) and according to Shazly (yes, he got a pair too), it is lighter than his Kayano 13.

The first 2km was pretty pleasant, i did not feel any noticeable heel strike when i landed the feet. I felt stronger too, perhaps i was rested the yesterday and it can't possibly be the shoe...right?

The forefoot felt good as well and there wasn't any indication if any blisters will form (usually, for me, it's on the inner arch and inner part of the toe) unlike the Triax.

The heel doesn't feel like it will suffer a major blister as well. Perhaps the No Seam and GeoFiT features does work!

Half way into the run, the feet still feel fresh and there wasn't any surprise pain on the knee, which i did on the Triax, which prompted me to think twice about wearing the Triax for IM08.

Infact, i even did a few high steps and landed squarely on the heel to check if the shock absorbancy was that effective. It was.

Formotion is a pretty new tech from Adidas and i was aware that the heel did land funnily during the run. It was a good kind of funny as i could feel the shoe conform to how my heel strikes the ground. Technically, the way i see it, there is no need to so call "wear down" the shoe to get the "customized" feel. With that, having the heel move independently of the other parts of the sole meant that the shoe will last longer. With the adiWEAR at where the Formotion is, that would meant the shoe might last a very very long time. Good value for money then!

LIke i said, it couldn't be the shoe, but i did found myself being able to push harder and longer that Shazly did say he was trying to "catch up" with my pace. That King Kong maybe just making me happy.

All in all, the 11km ran this morning was really pleasant, clocking in at 1:08 for 11km is definately good timing, considering the hills in Bukit Damansara.

I will continue to test the SNova 7 and if all goes well, i might use it for IM08...that would be an acid test, or sort of la.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Before i start today's blog entry, here is a picture i want to share. Me at about 7 years old, i reckon.

Yes, i'm fat. Thanks to the bread spreaded with 3mm thick of Planta and a cup of Nespray milk my mum used to make me and my sis eat/drink before the school bus arrive.

Now, compare that to me, when i was 5.

That is what happen when your mum force feed you in those 2 years period. I continue to grow, both horizontally and vertically. Then i stopped growing vertically and continue growing horizontally.

OK, back to the report.

Me, Shazly and Rashid went on for a long ride last Saturday.

We started at 5.30am from Shazly's place and headed towards Jalan Tun Razak before entering the highway at Kampung Pandan roundabout.

The road was clear, short of a few taxis speeding towards KLIA via Putrajaya and Adzim, which slowed down to check out butts out. The distance to Putrajaya was about 30km odd. But the "bumps" (as Shazly would call it) reminds anyone of the Seremban-PD highway.

"8 bumps only la", he jested.

And so, the 3 of us cycled up and down the bumps, passing Sri Kembangan, Bukit Jalil and ending up at Putrajaya, near the Cyberjaya/Putrajaya - KLIA highway.

We literally cycled from early morning...to morning...

Early Morning

Morning

Rashid, IM 09 hopeful, was having a good time riding with us two old hag. This chap is training as if he is gonna sub 14 hours in IM08.

IM 09 Candidate

By the time we rode over to the KLIA toll the second time, we saw Bacin and gang...speeding through, breaking the speed limit, as usual.

Where else, i was happily cruising along, catching up with Shazly and Rashid...

Shazly's Butt

We stopped at Petronas at P16 for refill.It was and will be a hot day. I brought along 4x750ml of liquid, of which after 100km, i finised 2 bottles and refilled another 2. The last 80km promised to be a hot affair. It was so really hot that we saw Bandit driving past on the opposite direction at the KL-Putrajaya highway wearing singlet.

If only IM08 is like this

Or hoping IM08 WON'T be like this???

Basically we did 2.5 loop of "Azwar's Secret Loop" and plus the distance to and fro from UK to Putrajaya, we hope to clock in 180km. Headwind was strong and we found ourselves pedalling downhill as well. The final 30km wouldn't be a ride in the park, i reckon.

Beautiful concrete jungle that is KL

But that wasn't the case. We only managed a 173km by the time we reached the traffic light near Shazly's house.

"Stupe, Melawati jom", Shazly suggested.

Knowing that i have todo a 180km by hook or by crook, i got no other reason to say "NO, are you nuts? you can fry a blardy egg on the handle bar even!".

SO, while Rashid shrugged off the thoughts of doing anohter odd 12km (of which he already cycled like 173km...)and prepping himself up to cycle the last bit of the ride (ie ride up the hill leading to Shazly's house), me and Shazly gladly rode to Melawati and exited at Klang Gate before heading home.

I was fine, well, until i reached the hill to Shazly's place. My abducters cramped and i did the stupidest thing by stopping and unclipping. That was when i felt how thick the fat on my inner thigh was as the muscle was so hard (because of the cramp) that i could actually pinchthe skin and knows how thick the fat was (damn it, it still IS!). All i could do was to unclip my other leg (right, which was feeling really fine) and stood there, with my back to the sun. It was burning hot. It was only what felt like forever that the muscle eased up and i could bend the left leg and relieve the cramp.

I finished the 185km ride, pedalling up the final ascent (looked like 150m, but it was in actual fact, 300 meters) and reaching Shazly's place in 7:18 (173km took us 6:30) inclusive of the time when i was standing there, bending over, baking in the sun while waiting for the leg to ease up.

Ride Stats

The average speed was pretty slow at 26km/h. That meant that it will take me that long to finish the 180km biking on IM08.

We decided to take the day off yesterday and ran this morning, at ungodly hours, again.

Clocked 12km in about 1:16. Now what is left is for me to swim dilligently (and intelligently) and i guess i am almost "there" for IM08, which is 25 days, from today.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

This is your father writing. Yes, the usual corny fella that been telling jokes your mum won't laugh at anymore.

Today, you are 17.5 weeks, you weigh in at about 250grams and is 6 inches tall.

Oh ya, we also found out that you are a GIRL!.

Let me tell you that this was like a super duper news to all of us. As you should know by now, you have an elder brother. His name is Ryan. And yes, he is the one that has always been putting his head on you and patting you as and when mummy sits down.

And the other fella that has been talking to you is, well, of course me.

Your aunts and grandma (your mum's family) shrieked with delight.

Which only meant one thing - i better start saving enough money to build you a big wardrobe. (It's scary to think that your brother, at 14 months old, has more clothes than your father).

By the way, just like your brother, you will have a new home to stay. When he was borned, papa and mama just shifted into the current place. By the time you are borned, it will be another new place for you, a bigger more comfy one for the family.

So, what do your father, mother and brother want from you?

Well, apart from that you will be able to get one rich tycoon as your husband, we wish that you will be blessed with the best of health, physically and mentally, of course. Nothing more than that.

And papa hope that your arrival this year will bring more luck to us all in the family. Papa is already blessed with a promising career (but that would also mean less time for you, mum and your brother), your mum is already blessed with the both of you (and she is actually thinking of a 3rd one...) and of course, your brother will definately have someone to be protective of.

Heck, i will interview the guys you bring home still; your brother will just help me gather "intelligence informations".

Above all, until you are named, you will be refered to as Ah Girl. Enjoy! As we all at home certainly are!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Got only myself to blame for not waking up to do the mandatory 30km run yesterday morning. It's like the mind shut off. I set 2 alarms, and left both phones outside the room.

Subconciously giving myself excuse to sleep in perhaps?

And yes, i felt really bad, especially so that i promised Shazly i'll run with him. Sorry buddy.

Soon after lunch, i made up for what was lacked (in training) by telling myself to do an OD tri simulation.

1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.

By right, this distance shouldn't even bother me at all; bonus was the really hot and humid afternoon that it was yesterday from 3pm to 6pm.

swim 39mins

I swam 100% freestyle, which is a vast improvement over the usualy freestyle/breaststroke which i do. I would say that 40minutes duration i would had covered at least 1.2km of distance.

Went upstairs, changed and roll out on bike.

bike 1:16

Felt good on the bike, decided i might not need aerobar, too late to get accustomed to it again and do not want to risk anything during IM. So, i went on for 36km in 1:16 and went home.

Not too bad also la

Parked the bike and changed to my running shoes and ran to TTDI and back. Should have at least 10km there.

Triax+

Finished the run in 56:13 and ended the day with a 100m lunge uphill to home.

Total time plus transition is slightly over 3 hours i reckon, as by the time i enters the house, it's just past 6pm.

I still felt strong and good. Sign that OD won't be a problem in the near future, and i might just be able to push harder on those OD tri races.

But IM is not any OD race, and with that, i'm keeping my fingers crossed, with roughly about 30 days to go, that i will finish the IM distance in 17 hours.

That's my personal battle. Come.what.may.

I weighed in again today and stood at 73.5kg. My ideal target is at 72kg lean. Looked like it's reachable within the next 30 days. Don't worry, i won't starve myself to lose weight. I want to lose fat, not muscle.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

2 years ago, in the final preparation to KLIM (my first marathon), i went down with a bad viral fever that took a month to fully recover, by then, all mileage put into the marathon training went down the anus, literally.

Last year, in preparation for KLIM, again, i was bogged with both knee injury and viral fever. Again, all preparation went to waste.

42 days to IronMan race. Time's running out. I'm worried all my effort that i put in since March 2007 will be wasted.

Nevermind the base training i put myself into by running like a mad dog at 2pm in the afternoon.

Or the mindless pedalling i had with the monkeys, often nothing less than 3-figures distances.

I can't say much about swimming as i simply do not have the privy to do it as often as the other two.

I lost almost 10kg since March 07. Going into training at a hefty 85kg and now i'm consistently at 75kg. My weight dropped by 2kg over the past 3 days; partly due to inability to eat and digest food properly.

Wife thinks i'm not doing enough (and hence, bought me the DREAM, so i could really put it to good use).

Now, i'm reeling. Ulcer in the mouth. Stomach releasing more water than when i pee. Muscle aching and threaten to cramp. Joint felt like it had not moved for ages. Head feeling heavy. Temperature rises in the late evening.

Overtrained? I am certainly not. not since i started this job in this new office.

It has been 5 months since (21 weeks since - thanks to the timesheet system, i know exactly how many weeks i'm here), i'm still adapting to the whole new "consultancy" capacity, the whole new "workload" and a whole new expectation with work. I'm now tasked to do Business Development as well. Apart from leading a team to complete 90 sites this year. Nevermind the pay. After 7 years working in my previous company and going no where in terms of career and securing a good future, i find myself trying really really hard to catch up. 75% of the office is 5 years younger than me on the average. The other 25% are the bosses. I've no issues working under someone younger. But it would be better to be on top.

Looked like i play as hard as i work. Or perhaps, i've been working harder than playing.

And that including spending enough time with the family. Speaking of which, Wifey is trying to weane Ryan off his pacifier. So far, so good. Been 3 days. Just that we had to struggle a bit in the middle of the night, with him looking for his pacifier. It's a bit tough, when we are expecting the second one, and me, still not recovering.

Was it a good run? Yes it was. Infact, i felt fine, prefectly fine, but because i had to rush home to help my parents shift to a new place, i got no choice but to call it off, and not run the extra 8km (I had it played in my mind; to run from Bukit Aman to th 4k mark in Bukit Tunku and back).

Later that morning (and until 2200hours), it was all about heavy liftings and running about from Gombak to Subang to help my parents shift to their new place.

All i can say is, i'm really happy for them, for moving out from the place that had made them so depressed.

Today, my whole body was aching, it felt as if i've ran 30km and lifted weights like i never did before!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

When everyone was just coming back from New Year party, with some incidences of people still vomiting by the road side and one lover spat witnessed near Tractor Malaysia’s junction, my first day of 2008 was spent with some monkeys doing what we do best. Monkeying around.

Venue was at Putrajaya and the Menu was 100k bike and 20k run.

Azwar

Bacin

Adzim

Monkeys at 5.30am

Zipp Carbon Speed Weaponry

Adrian

Puzi

Shazly

Me!

Azwar had 2 puntures, one at KM10 and one more at KM75. The interesting thing about the second puncture is that we shared some view with a few cows (which explained why that stretch smelt of cow dung).

4 Guys supervising how to change bike tube

Or was it the cows wonder why Azwar is bending over?

Here is a video of these mutants cruising at a slow (to them) 36km/h. This is the pace they always do when they go for their long ride. How I managed to keep up with them after 70km/h still baffles me.

Immediately after the bike, we changed and ran. Some did 20k, some did 10k and for weakling like me, did a mere 3.3k (Adzim has his new GPS Forerunner with HRM).

Adzim and Azwar burning the road

While me and Bacin struggled to keep up

Dino, Mejar Kalam and his merry UPNM men were seen cycling past the Mosque area as I packed to go home. If those mutants were to BRICK with us, I can bet that I will be cleaning up after their sweat.

Anyhow, it was a good workout, a slow but surely entry to BRICK, in preparation for IM08.

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